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Avatar: The Last Airbender season 2

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Book 2: Earth
Season 2
The cover for "The Complete Book 2 Collection" DVD.
No. of episodes20
Release
Original networkNickelodeon
Original releaseMarch 17[1] –
December 1, 2006[1]
Season chronology
← Previous
Book 1: Water
Next →
Book 3: Fire
List of episodes

Season Two (Book Two: Earth) of Avatar: The Last Airbender, an American animated television series on Nickelodeon, aired 20 episodes from March 17, 2006[1] to December 1, 2006[1]. The season was created and produced by Michael Dante DiMartino and Bryan Konietzko[3], and starred Zach Tyler Eisen, Mae Whitman, Jack DeSena, Jessie Flower, Mako, Grey DeLisle, and Dante Basco as the main character voices.

The season begins with protagonist Aang, and his friends Katara and Sokka, and their quest to find an Earthbending teacher, which finishes when they recruit Toph. Sokka finds important information concerning the war with the Fire Nation. However, Aang quickly becomes involved in looking for his kidnapped flying bison Appa. Aang's search leads him to Ba Sing Se, the capital of the Earth Kingdom. Aang uncovers the massive internal government corruption of Ba Sing Se. The season ends with Ba Sing Se falling to the Fire Nation, and Aang escaping with his friends on a recovered Appa.

Throughout the season's airing, the show has received much acclaim, with praises such as, "As a flat concept, Avatar the Last Airbender is nothing special, but in execution, it is head and shoulders above other children's entertainment", and that "as a whole, the look of Avatar is consistently excellent."[4] Furthermore, the show has won multiple awards, including the "Best Character Animation in a Television Production" award from the 34th Annual Annie Awards[5] and the "Outstanding Individual Achievement in Animation" award from the 2007 Emmy Awards.[6]

Between January 23, 2007 and September 11, 2007, Nickelodeon released five DVD sets for the season: four sets containing five episodes each, and a fifth DVD collection of all twenty episodes.[2] All DVDs were encoded in Region 1, meaning they play only on North American DVD players. All of the Region 2 DVDs, which have been released for Season 1, have yet to be released.[7]

Production

The show was produced by and aired on Nickelodeon, which is owned by Viacom.[3] The show's executive producers and co-creators are Michael Dante DiMartino and Bryan Konietzko, who worked alongside episode director and co-producer Aaron Ehasz.[3][8] The majority of the individual episodes were directed by Ethan Spaulding, Lauren MacMullan and Giancarlo Volpe.[3][9] Episodes were written or co-written by a team of writers, which consisted of Aaron Ehasz, Elizabeth Welch Ehasz, Tim Hedrick, John O'Bryan, and others.[10] All of the show's music was composed by "The Track Team", which consists of Jeremy Zuckerman and Benjamin Wynn,[3] who were known to Dante and Konietzko because Zuckerman was Konietzko's roommate.[11]

Most of the main characters who made their debut in the first season remained the same, with Zach Tyler Eisen as Aang, Mae Whitman as Katara, Jack DeSena as Sokka,[3] and Dante Basco as the anti-hero Zuko.[12] However, several new characters also appear: Toph voiced by Jessie Flower, Azula voiced by Grey DeLisle and Long Feng voiced by Clancy Brown.[10] In addition, two other characters, Mai and Ty Lee, are introduced as antagonists who help Azula to capture Aang. They were voiced by Cricket Leigh and Olivia Hack, respectively.[10] Mako, who voiced Iroh, died during production and was replaced by Greg Baldwin.

Reception

In a review of the Volume 2 DVD Release for Book 2, Gabriel Powers from DVDActive.com says "Avatar: The Last Airbender is probably the best kids show to come along since Justice League and Samurai Jack"; the review describes the many good aspects of the show, such as "how funny it is".[13] Powers also comments:

Without dumbing down its characters, plots, or humour, and without overtly taming-up the action or peril, Avatar manages to enthral children and adults, ages 4 to 56...There is a genuine classic feel to the series, which uses actual Asian history and lore as its base. Like Star Wars, the creative forces behind the show have tapped into that basic, generation spanning storytelling that will live long after the series' youngest fans are old and bitter.[13]

For the video and audio quality, Powers says "Season two generally looks better than the bulk of season one, but still has some issues" concerning image sharpness.[14] Jamie S. Rich from DVD Talk says that "As a flat concept, Avatar the Last Airbender is nothing special, but in execution, it is head and shoulders above other children's entertainment", and that "as a whole, the look of Avatar is consistently excellent".[4]

In the 34th Annual Annie Awards of 2006, the show was nominated for and won the "Best Character Animation in a Television Production" award, for Jae-Myung Yu's animation in "The Blind Bandit", and the "Best Directing in an Animated Television Production" award, for the episode "The Drill".[15] In 2007, the show was nominated for "Outstanding Animated Program" in the 2007 Emmy Awards for the "City of Walls and Secrets" episode,[16] though it did not win.[6] However, the show did win the "Outstanding Individual Achievement in Animation" award for Sang-Jin Kim's animation in the "Lake Laogai" episode.[6]

Episodes

# Title Director(s) Writer(s) Original US Airdate Production code[17]

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DVD Releases

Nickelodeon began releasing DVDs for Book 2 on January 23, 2007.[2] The first five DVD releases contained one disc that consisted of four episodes each.[7] The final DVD was the "Complete Book 2 Box Set", which contained all of the episodes in the season dispersed on five discs, and packaged with a special features disc.[2] All of the DVD sets for Book 2 were released with Region 1 encoding, meaning they can only play on North American DVD players. Only "Book 2: Earth, Volume 1" has been released in Region 2, which plays in Europe.[18]

Region 1

Volume
Released Discs Episodes
1 January 23, 2007 1 5
2 April 10, 2007 1 5
3 May 22, 2007 1 5
4 August 14, 2007 1 5
Box Set September 11, 2007 5 20

References

General
  • "Season 2". Avatar: The Last Airbender. IGN. Retrieved 2008-07-21.
  • "Season 2 DVD Information". TVShowsOnDVD.com. Retrieved 2008-09-06.
Specific
  1. ^ a b c d "[[IGN]]: [[Avatar: The Last Airbender]]: Season 2". IGN Entertainment. Retrieved 2008-10-22. {{cite web}}: URL–wikilink conflict (help)
  2. ^ a b c d "Avatar: The Last Airbender Search". Amazon.com, Inc. Retrieved 2008-06-05.
  3. ^ a b c d e f Fries, Laura (2005-02-21). "Avatar: The Last Airbender Review". Variety TV. Reed-Elsevier Inc. Retrieved 2008-05-30.
  4. ^ a b Rich, Jamie S. (2007-09-12). "Avatar The Last Airbender - The Complete Book 2 Collection". DVD Talk. Retrieved 2008-06-06.
  5. ^ "Annie Awards: Legacy - 34th Annual Annie Awards". International Animated Film Society. 2006-02-09. Retrieved 2008-04-26.
  6. ^ a b c Mesger, Robin (2007-09-08). "59th Creative Emmy Awards Winners" (PDF). Academy of Television Arts & Sciences. pp. 11–12. Retrieved 2008-06-05.
  7. ^ a b "The Avatar: The Last Airbender Series". Amazon.co.uk. Amazon.com, Inc. Retrieved 2008-06-05.
  8. ^ DiMartino, Michael Dante; Konietzko, Bryan (2005-08-29). "Interview with "Avatar" Program Creators - Page 3" (Transcript) (Interview). Interviewed by Aaron H. Bynum. Retrieved 2008-05-29. {{cite interview}}: Unknown parameter |program= ignored (help); Unknown parameter |subjectlink2= ignored (|subject-link2= suggested) (help)
  9. ^ "Ethan Spaulding from Avatar: The Last Airbender". Film.com. RealNetworks. Retrieved 2008-06-10.
  10. ^ a b c "Avatar: The Last Airbender". Hollywood.com. Hollywood Media Corporation. Retrieved 2008-05-30.
  11. ^ DiMartino, Michael Dante; Konietzko, Bryan (2005-08-29). "Interview with "Avatar" Program Creators - Page 4" (Transcript) (Interview). Interviewed by Aaron H. Bynum. Retrieved 2008-05-29. {{cite interview}}: Unknown parameter |program= ignored (help); Unknown parameter |subjectlink2= ignored (|subject-link2= suggested) (help)
  12. ^ "Dante Basco". 2005. Retrieved 2008-03-31.
  13. ^ a b Powers, Gabriel. "Avatar: The Last Airbender, Book 2, Vl.1". DVDActive. Retrieved 2008-06-05.
  14. ^ Powers, Gabriel. "Avatar: The Last Airbender, Season Two Collection". DVDActive. Retrieved 2008-06-05.
  15. ^ "Annie Awards: Legacy - 34th Annual Annie Awards". International Animated Film Society. 2006. Retrieved 2008-06-05.
  16. ^ "59th Creative Emmy Awards Nominations" (PDF). Academy of Television Arts & Sciences. 2007. p. 1. Retrieved 2008-06-05.
  17. ^ Production code format taken from the commentary for "Sozin's Comet: The Phoenix King"
  18. ^ "Avatar - The Last Airbender: Book 2 - Earth, Vol. 1". Amazon.co.uk. Amazon.com. Retrieved 2008-06-05.
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